The demand for extreme wide-angle lenses has increased enormously in recent years. Whereas twenty years ago these types of lenses were considered to be highly specialized, full-frame lenses with a focal length of 14 mm or less have actually become quite normal in interior and landscape photography. No wonder that so many extreme wide-angle lenses and wide-angle zooms have come on the market. A number are exclusively for mirrorless cameras, but there is certainly also a good selection in EF mount. For example, Samyang has the Samyang XP 10 mm f/3.5. But if you still want autofocus, or the convenience of a zoom, it is impossible to ignore the Canon EF 11-24 mm f/4L USM. This lens offers the biggest field of view of all rectalinear (not fisheye) EF zoom lenses, and it also has autofocus. It offers an extra millimeter compared to, for example, the Sigma 12-24 mm f/2 ART, and that really makes a difference. Every millimeter is important in the wide-angle range.

BUILD AND AUTOFOCUS

The Canon EF 11-24 mm f/4L USM is a sturdy lens, in more than one respect. The Canon EF 11-24 mm f/4L USM is solidly built, and you can feel that from the weight. It is weather-resistant and has a gasket on the back. The lens has 16 lens elements in 11 groups. The lens includes a UD element, a Super-UD element and four aspherical elements. But the most striking thing about the lens is of course the large, convex front lens. As a result, it is of course not possible to use standard screw filters. There are, however, several manufacturers, such as Athabasca and Nisi, who make special filter holders. You then need large, flat filters of at least 15 cm or larger. They are not cheap and not very easy to take with you. But it’s possible.

IMAGE QUALITY

With a lens with such a large field of view, you would almost be inclined to be somewhat forgiving when it comes to image quality. Fortunately, that’s not necessary with the Canon EF 11-24 mm f/4L USM. The image quality is very good, and the sharpness is very good out to the corners over almost the entire zoom range. The sharpness is pretty even. There are Canon wide-angle lenses that achieve a higher center sharpness, but the fact that the Canon EF 11-24 mm f/4L USM has relatively little difference between the center and the corners makes it particularly suitable for landscape and interior photography, for example.

Vignetting is of course inevitable in a lens with such a big field of view. Certainly at 11 mm, it is more than a stop at full aperture, and even at f/5.6, it isn’t completely gone. As you zoom in, it decreases. But if you want it all-but gone, then you will have to stop down two stops or correct it in the post-processing.

The Canon EF 11-24 mm f/4L USM is fairly distortion-free over a large part of the zoom range, even without lens corrections. That is the advantage of a lens made for SLR cameras. Because the viewfinder image can’t be corrected on a DSLR, as a manufacturer, you will have to resolve the distortion with a good optical design. From 24 mm to about 17 mm, it is very minimal, and if you zoom out further, it increases slowly. But only at the extreme wide-angle position, at 11mm, does it becomes reasonably visible, especially if you have straight lines along the edge of your image and if they are close. You have fewer problems with larger shooting distances.

Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM SAMPLE IMAGES

Curious about the performance of the Canon EF 11-24 mm f/4L USM in practice? Click on the button below and visit our renewed web gallery with sample images. The images can be downloaded in full resolution to be viewed at 100%.

ConclusiON: REVIEW Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L USM oN Canon 5DsR & Sony A7R III